Search and Rescue (Merit Badge)

The Search and Rescue Merit Badge was added in Summer 2013 by Scout Skills Director Cole Glenwright. It was taught out of Scout Skills.

Skills
Scouts learned skills ranging from medical rescue, the Incident Command System, clue awareness, UTM, GPS usage and mapping, proper SAR equipment and safety wear, and how to establish critical seperation. Medical Rescue was taught by Camp Health Officer "Medic Dave", and Ranger Harold Kenney and Wrangler Nick Tsakalos constributed with interviews.

Exercise
The highlight of the badge for both Scouts and Staff was Wednesday night's Search and Rescue Exercise. After commisoner campfire, the merit badge scouts would trek to Casey Lodge and assume roles under the Incident Command System, from Responders to Incident Commander. Casey was equiped as an Incident Command Post, complete with Google Earth projected on a wall, and tables lined with maps, whiteboards, and notepads. Helmets, vests, radios, flashlights, medical kits, evidence bags, and a backboard were arranged in the room. Staff played the roles of a paniced SPL, a firefighter liaison, and the injured "subject". Using staff radios (to the enjoyment of the Staff, as the traffic was often quite comedic), the Scouts would conduct a methodical search of the camp, and then backboard the subject and return him to Casey. The Scouts usually divided up into three search teams, a rescue team, and a command team. While the exercise was meticoulsy laid out by the 8-10 staff members involved, as was bound to happen with a group of Scouts after dark, several bloopers (which of course, were broadcast over the staff radio freqeuncy) ensured:
 * Dropping the subject while on a backboard (only once, week 1)
 * Accidently scaring two "Hindu or Muslim" Scouts praying at the chapel with whistles
 * Walking right past the subject TWICE
 * Bagging every single peice of trash as a "clue" (several clues were laid out by the staff, but none were trash!)
 * Managing to find four different sets of gloves in the oddest places around camp
 * Chasing someone (still unidentified) across the archery range, only to lose them in the brush